Malaria kills over 2.7 million people annually amongst the 300-500 million clinical cases worldwide. Malaria is increasingly imported into countries where it is non-endemic and there is an increase in the emergence of drug resistant strains. Malaria predominantly occurs in resource-poor tropical populations where diagnostic capabilities are inadequate. The gold standard blood film malaria diagnostic assay relies on phlebotomy and technical expertise. However, in impoverished populations, the lack of resources to safely draw blood increases the risk of transmitting diseases such as hepatitis B and HIV. Thus, simple assays are much needed in the art to improve the availability of malaria diagnosis to obviate the occupational hazards involved in phlebotomy, to provide better treatment options to those in need, and to differentiate between symptomatic and asymptomatic disease.
It is an object of this invention to provide a rapid, sensitive method for detecting Plasmodium analytes in body fluids. Another object is to provide an assay that has high sensitivity.